When we woke up from our long sleep, we woke with what felt like limitless energy. Smiles of Joy beamed from every face in the room. I went through my usual morning routine and when I got to our room, it was in complete chaos. Bachira and Isagi were having a Pillow Fight, Gagamaru was currently choking out Naruhaya, Raichi and Kunigami were Arm Wrestling with Iemon acting as a Referee, Igaguri, Imamura and even Chugiri got in on the fun. They were playing 'Who am I?', a game where one person imitates someone else and the rest would have to guess who was being imitated. The winner is decided on how accurate the imitation is compared to others.
I just smiled and was about to move through this rampage of Joy and Laughter when Ego's face interrupted by showing up on the big Screen.
"Hello there, my Diamonds in the rough. It seems you are still riding the high of your last win. Well, I'm about to bring you idiots all back down to reality. As you all know, the Bluelock 2nd Selection is about to begin and trust me, if you thought the 1st Selection was ridiculous, the 2nd Selection will make it look like a walk in the Park.", he said with a neutral face but those words dropped the temperature of the room by several degrees. We had already anticipated that the 2nd Selection would be more difficult compared to the 1st but hearing the confirmation from him was just as jarring.
"Fortunately for you plebs, your favourite egoist will not leave you unprepared. That is why, starting today, for 2 weeks, you all will undergo intense training that will push you to your limits and more. Oh, and just so you know, none of you are allowed to lay a finger on a Football. I'm sure I don't need to tell you the consequences of violating my rules. Good luck.", he finished with a grin and his face immediately disappeared, leaving a black screen with the usual Bluelock logo in the middle.
"For Christ's sake, every single time his face shows up on screen, its always one mind-breaking new after another. He's either saying something that completely contradicts what we know about Football or he's putting us through one bullshit after another.", I grumbled out tiredly. "Well, what can we do? It's his facility, his rules. What he says, goes. And there's nothing we can do about it.", Iemon replied calmly. "Doesn't mean we have to like it though.", Igaguri added but other than that, we remained silent.
Despite our grumblings and dissatisfaction, we went through the training regimen he set for us and it was every bit the hellish routine we hoped it wouldn't be. Drills upon drills stacked on top of each other with limited breaks in-between for Food and Rest. The longest break we had was for Sleep but even that felt very inadequate especially after the intense workouts and football drills we had to go through.
Our training routine went thus,
06:00am - Wake up
06:10am - 06:30am - Warm ups on the Field
06:30am - 08:00am - Football Drills
08:00am - 08:30am - Breakfast
08:30am - 12:00pm - Gym
12:30pm - 01:00pm - Rest
01:00pm - 03:00pm - Stamina training
03:00pm - 03:30pm - Rest and Lunch
03:30pm - 05:00pm - Gym
05:00pm - 05:30pm - Rest
05:30pm - 08:00pm - Football Drills
08:00pm - 08:30pm - Rest and Dinner
08:30pm - 09:00pm - Free time
09:00pm - 06:00am - Sleep
This routine continued for 2 straight weeks and the reactions from all of Team Z differed greatly. Kunigami, Raichi, Gagamaru, Iemon and I showed subdued reactions to it as we were already used to intense training regimens. The ones noticeably struggling were Imamura, Igaguri (which surprised me because from what I've seen from the Internet about Monks, they are usually athletic freaks of nature. I'm suddenly beginning to question whether he truly lived in a Monastery.) and Chigiri. Isagi and Bachira were somewhere in the middle. You could tell they hadn't undergone training this intense but they could keep up, if barely. The rest though, they were in Hell. They would almost always puke their guts out during training, especially during Stamina training. Especially Igaguri (SERIOUSLY, IS THIS GUY REALLY A MONK?!!!). That aide, it was incredibly tough on all of us. Even the ones who were somewhat used to intense training.
After what felt like forever, the 2 weeks elapsed and in the morning of the next day, the usual Alarm that was supposed to wake us up didn't ring. It was the PSA system that did with the usual female voice. "Congratulations, Striker. Your 2 weeks intensive training period is over. Please exit the rooms and gather in the Main Hall for further instructions. I repeat, gather in the Main Hall for further instructions." she instructed formally.
We all got up and stretched. "Oh, finally!! Thank God, its finally over!!! I thought I was going to die!!", Igaguri shouted thankfully. A sentiment shared by everyone but for different reason. Raichi, with his usual murderous smile, said, "Finally, that bullshit bootcamp ass training is over. If we lasted one more day, I swear I was ready to tear this building down one brick at a time". He punctuated his pointed by punching his palm. Surprisingly, Iemon shared his sentiment. " I hear ya. I was ready to burn this place down if we had to spend one more day like that.". "I'm just glad this thing is over. I've been itching to see what 2nd Selection is all about.", I added with a wide smile.
Very quickly, we changed into our Bluelock inner wear and made our way to the Main Hall. As we arrived, we were buzzing with excitement. Before this moment, we had just wiped the floor with the strongest team in our building, our confidence was sky-high. We were itching to go up against whatever challenges Bluelock's 2nd Selection had for us.
When we finally entered the Main Hall, we were instantly quietened. We noticed faces we hadn't seen before all wearing Team V, W, X and Y dotting everywhere. All of a sudden, sky-high confidence turned to befuddling confusion. Everyone else shared in our confusion as we looked around. We were expecting to meet the cocky, arrogant Strikers from the higher ranked Buildings, challenge them, whoop them something special and show them what Team Z was all about but what we met were confused faces of Strikers who came here with the same intentions. Thankfully, Ego's face showed up on the Big Screen once again to clear thing up.
"Hello, my Diamonds in the rough. Congratulations on completing the Bluelock 1st Selection. You have all done well. But, its not enough. Not even close.", he greeted with his usual smirk. "As I'm sure you have noticed, there are no players from the higher ranked Buidings present. You might be asking why but shut up and listen. The truth is, there were no higher ranked buildings to begin with. Every building in Bluelock were of all the same rank." he finished with a smile and watched the realisation dawn on our faces and the pandemonium and outrage that followed.
I stayed silent and contemplated the reason behind this. I had a vague idea but I held back and waited for him to finish. "Guys, let's hold off on any reactions for now. He's not done.", I advised and we all quieted down. As the other players screamed and cursed at him, accusing him of lying to them, he scoffed and responded, "Yes, of course, I lied. I had to. You saw fellow strikers get locked off, how did you feel in that moment? That euphoric sense of Relief that you had the opportunity to keep fighting for your dreams just that bit more. I wanted you to experience it first-hand and make you crave more. The desperate need to prove yourself better than everybody, the need to be the best, that Need, that Drive was what I wanted to see in you. Tell me, on your way here, didn't you all come here to kick the butts of all the higher ranked players in the higher ranked buildings who had it easy? Didn't you want to knock them off their perch at the top?". Those words encapsulated the subliminal thoughts of all of us in Team Z. Sure, we were happy to make it past the 1st Selection, but more than that, we were angry. Angry at the other players in the higher ranked buildings who we thought lived on easy mode while we had to fight through a Nightmare, giving everything we had every single match, every single training to better ourselves while they just cruised to the 2nd Selection like they owned the place. Of course, we were angry. Of course, we wanted to come here and show them what's what. Of course, we wanted to come to 2nd Selection and show them who's better. The whole room went silent as Ego continued explaining.
"Let's take the recent Balon D'or winner, Noel Noa, as an example. He grew up in the slums of France. Just a street kid with a strong body and an incredible Talent. Football was literally his only chance to turn his life around. Luka Modric, touted as one of the greatest Midfielders in the World who also ended up winning a Balon D'or, was a scrawny, small, immigrant kid who grew up from a poor family, miraculously landed at Real Madrid, where legends and iconic names played, worked hard and guided the team to multiple Champions League titles, even almost winning the World Cup for his country, taking them all the way to the Final. I can keep going but we'll be here all day. You would have to be a special kind of stupid to not see my point. That need to improve, the drive to prove yourself, the resolve to never accept anything but victory. That is what you will need if you want to have any hopes of passing this 2nd Selection. Step through when you're ready and seize your future with your own two hands.", he finished and his face flashed away from the Screen, leaving the usual blank, black screen with the Bluelock logo floating in the middle.
That speech charged up everyone in the room, except for a select few that I had my eye, and we settled down quite quickly. As I was about to say something to Team Z, something sparked in the back of my head and I whipped around with full force to see a tall, blue-haired dude already in shooting position. My eyes went wide as his right foot connected with the ball, sending it high into the air. The entire room cleared as everything turned blue, I could suddenly see it. The way his foot connected with the ball, the trajectory of the ball, an imaginary Goal with a Keeper already present and struggling to reach the high-arcing ball. Suddenly, he moved and kicked another ball. That imagination immediately poofed away as this time, I could accurately catch his foot smashing into the second ball, sending it off at high speed. This second shot moved half like a cross and half like a shot. My mind immediately went to work calculating the trajectory of the ball's movement mid-air. I also pictured a player in an optimal position to receive that ball but everything shattered when the two balls, impossibly, collided mid-air and flew apart. Like glass, my imaginary world shattered into a million pieces as my lower jaw connected with the floor.
Behind me, all of Team Z were in disbelief, as was the entire room. I even heard a shout of 'GLAM' from somewhere in the crowd but everything had been reduced to white noise for me. I could see it. I could feel it. That shot should have been impossible. The two balls collided dead center with each other and split apart evenly. He must have calculated the height, speed, spin and power of the first shot before firing, did the same for the second one but increased everything and he even accounted for the point of collision to make sure they collided dead center. All that in milliseconds. It took him 3 seconds to complete his show and after that, he just said. "I'm ready. Open the door." and left. Just like that. Like he's done this a million times before. I kept staring at the door even after he had left and I thought, 'Jesus Christ, am I even good enough to stand in front of talent like that? Am I good enough to face talent like that? Who CAN stand toe to toe with someone like that? This guy could take on an entire team and tear them apart all by himself. These are the types of talents that Scouts salivate over. What is he doing here in Bluelock? That's not a 'he' because that would mean he's a Human Being. This...…THING is not human. That is a monster. A true monster.'. During my spiral, I hadn't notice but I had left Team Z behind and moved towards the door. The hiss of the automatic door opening snapped me out of it but it also brought me focus. 'Tch. What's wrong with me? We said the same thing about Nagi and we crushed him. I'll just do the same to him. He's not the first Super-Genius I've ever faced and he won't be the last. My dream is to be the greatest Footballer to have ever played. Beating players like Messi, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Maradona, Pele and the like. I'm not about to let some unknown kid from Japan scare me just because he can do parlour tricks with a ball. He's good, yes. But so what? I'll just become better. How hard could it be?'
I snapped myself back to Reality and confidently stepped through the door, heard it close behind me and moved into the light. Bring it on, Bluelock. I crushed the 1st Selection, the 2nd Selection won't fare any better. I'll crush it too.